Caseloads over 14 percent higher for federal prosecutors in 2025 with guns, drugs at top

CEDAR RAPIDS — The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Iowa had fewer trials in 2025 than in the previous year but the number of overall cases filed went up, again ranking the office second when compared with 24 other federal districts of similar size.

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The office also had an increase in methamphetamine, opioid and child pornography cases from 2024, U.S. Attorney Leif Olson said in mid-December while reviewing the year-end statistics. Olson took over the office in October after being nominated by President Donald Trump and confirmed by the U.S. Senate.

Olson replaced U.S. Attorney Tim Duax, who was appointed by the U.S. Justice Department in 2022 because there hadn’t been a vote on a presidential nominee since Peter Deegan Jr. was named the district’s top prosecutor in 2017. He retired in 2021.

Olson, the former chief deputy of the Iowa Attorney General’s Office, said he still is getting familiar with the office headquartered in Cedar Rapids, but noted he is proud of the work his 25 assistant prosecutors, 17 support staff and five administrative staff handle on a daily basis to keep communities safe across the district.

The prosecutors and other staff work out of the Cedar Rapids office, as well as offices in Dubuque, Fort Dodge and Sioux City.

The prosecutors work in cooperation with local, state and county law enforcement to share resources and information to determine whether a case will be better for state or federal charges, Olson said. Cases typically are referred to the federal office by county attorneys or other law enforcement such as sheriffs.

Northern District had 12 trials in 2025, down from 18 in 2024

The federal court system’s 94 districts are categorized as small, middle, large and very large, Olson noted. The average number of trials per year in the system’s 25 small districts, which includes the Northern District of Iowa, is seven.

In 2025, the Cedar Rapids-based Northern District had 12 trials, compared to 18 in 2024, which was higher than normal, Olson said.

According to statistics from the Northern District office, the 18 trials in 2024 was among the highest in recent years. Only 2022 had more, with 20.

Caseloads also are up about 14.5 percent from 2024 to 2025, Olson said. There were 324 cases filed with 370 defendants in 2025, which is the highest since 2019. In 2024, 278 cases were filed with 332 defendants, according to office statistics.

Of those 2025 cases, 130 were drug-related with 106 of those for meth and 36 involving opioids and fentanyl; 131 were gun prosecutions; 32 were white-collar crimes; 39 involved child pornography; and 28 were immigration offenses. Many of the drugs and firearms offenses can overlap with defendants being indicted for both.

The national average in the federal districts for child pornography offenses is 35 cases per year, Olson noted.

In 2025, 311 defendants were convicted, compared with 286 convicted in 2024.

Olson also highlighted some of the office’s notable prosecutions of 2025, which included a large civil settlement and a drug conspiracy where an 18-year-old Nebraska woman went missing.

Notable prosecutions in 2025

— Maximus Inc., a government services contractor, agreed to pay $8 million to settle fraud allegations because it misled the U.S. Census Bureau about the quality and data accuracy of its call handling for the 2020 census. The settlement resolved allegations made by whistleblowers under the federal False Claims Act. The $8 million was one of the five biggest civil settlements in this case, which was investigated in multiple federal districts, over the last five years.

— Cody K. Dittmar, 34, of Cedar Rapids, and his wife, Alysha Dittmar, 28, of Colorado, were convicted of distributing heroin and fentanyl to a Marion couple who overdosed and died in 2023. A jury found Dittmar guilty of distribution and other charges in June, and his sentencing is set for Jan. 6 in U.S. District Court. He faces a mandatory minimum of 40 years in prison. Alysha Dittmar pleaded guilty in September 2024 and was sentenced in February to 20 years in prison.

— Nathan Isadore Jiles, 25, of Hiawatha, pleaded in 2024 and was sentenced in May to 14 years in prison for assaulting a deputy U.S. marshal with his vehicle and then grabbing a loaded firearm with an extended magazine before law enforcement could tase him and wrestle him out of the car to arrest him.

— Floyd Clifford Coates Jr., 44, of St. Francis, Kan., and Dennis Lawson, 65, of Whiting, Iowa, were convicted by a jury in November in Sioux City on drugs, firearms and obstruction charges in the disappearance of 18-year-old Sunny Sramek, of Nebraska. During a 2019 drug run to Kansas City, Coates picked up Sramek in Trenton, Neb. They stopped at a house in Blair, Neb., but Sramek, who was motionless, remained in the car, according to a witness.

Coates told the witness he provided Sramek with meth. Coates then canceled his trip to Kansas City and instead went to the home of Lawson, his brother-in-law. The witness said when she came back to the car, Sramek’s body was gone and Lawson threatened her not to tell anyone.

Later, Coates told others Sramek had overdosed and also told a few others that he dumped her body in the Missouri River to conceal his crime. Her body hasn’t been recovered. Coates faces up to life in prison, and Lawson faces up to 20 years.

Trish Mehaffey covers state and federal courts for The Gazette.

Comments: (319) 398-8318; trish.mehaffey@thegazette.com